


Brutish Young Lady

by Scarfinator



Category: Tales of Berseria, Tales of Graces, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Zestiria, Tales of the Rays (Video Game)
Genre: Crossover, Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 23:12:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13691826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarfinator/pseuds/Scarfinator
Summary: Rita and Edna have been sent on a mission together at some old ruins. Edna's happy enough to be reunited with her brother, Rita knows that. But something's definitely off with how Eizen's been treating her, and it's ticking Rita off more than it should considering it's none of her business.Actually it IS her business, kind of. Eizen's obsession with protecting his sister at the expense of everyone else is going to get Rita and Asbel killed if it keeps up, no doubt! But seeing these siblings act the way they do around each other is still eating away at her bit by agonizing bit.Not that Rita's determination to remain emotionally disconnected is going to stop her from trying to give Edna a reality check.





	Brutish Young Lady

“Would you not pull so dang hard?! You just made me slam right into the wall!”

“Quit whining. I’ve almost got you out.”

With a final tug at the rope, Edna retrieved Rita from a pit trap she had fallen into. Both girls collapsed intertwined onto the floor, their labored breathing echoing throughout the ruins.

“Get off me,” Edna said as soon as she could muster the energy to do so. “After all the effort I went through to rescue you, do you really expect me to be able to push you off? I AM but a frail young lady.”

“Yeah yeah,” Rita sighed as she untangled herself from Edna. Standing up with a start, she stared the other girl down for a scant moment, then continued. “Also, don’t pull the ‘I’m frail’ card. You didn’t even have any help with that rope and you still got me out in no time flat. You’re pretty damn strong, you know?”

Edna stood up herself and brandished her closed parasol at Rita. “And YOU’RE pretty light, you know THAT? It was no trouble at all in the end. Even I could pull your malnourished, lanky body out of the deepest of pits.”

“Didn’t you just say that pulling me up wore you out?!” Rita crossed her arms and huffed. “Seriously, you’re a brute when you want to be. Might as well own it.”

Before Edna could retort, light footsteps echoed through the adjacent hallway. Both girls jerked their heads toward the noise, their eyes meeting Asbel’s. He was one of two other companions who had accompanied them on their expedition.

Edna slightly cocked her head. “Where have you been? You could have lent me your own upper body strength and made the job quicker.”

Asbel looked off to the side and scratched the back of his head. “I, uh, didn’t stay back on purpose. I fell into a trap too a while back and you guys didn’t even notice. Eizen had to stay and get me out, and he went ahead to go disarm some more traps afterwards.”

“Oh. …Well, at least that means no more of that hellish Loser’s Curse for a while,” Rita shrugged. “Seriously, I don’t know what Ix and Mileena were thinking sending just the three of us out here with him. We should just grab what we came for and go pick the jerk up once we’re done.”

“Sure, but…” Asbel began. “When Eizen left, he told me to find you two and then stay put until he was done.”

Rita’s eyes closed and her expression tensed up. “Hm. Okay then. Guess I could use a break anyway.” With heavy footsteps, she went to a nearby wall and sat down against it. Edna and Asbel promptly joined her. Asbel stayed standing in order to keep more apt watch. Edna sat next to Rita, although not without a brief wince of pain escaping her throat as she did.

“What was that? Are you ok?” Asbel inquired as soon as he heard Edna gasp out.

Edna rolled her eyes and turned away. “It’s nothing. I’m just sore from all the hell we’ve been through today.”

“Are you sure? I’ve got some gels if you need to heal—”

“Seriously, tone it down. You’re almost as much of a worrywart as my brother.”

Rita’s teeth gritted audibly. “Hell if that’s possible,” she muttered just barely above her breath.

“I’m sorry?”

“What do you think I said, Edna?” Rita snarled abruptly. “I said no one’s as much of a spaz about you as your brother. It’s insane.”

Edna slowly turned her head towards Rita. Her expression hardened, and her eyes went wide. “What makes you think that?"

“Is it really a problem to be protective?” Asbel asked. “I can understand where Eizen is coming from. You want to protect your family, no matter what, and sometimes you might go just a bit overboard. But that’s ok. It shows how much Eizen cares about—”

“Ugh, It’s not as simple as brotherly love, Asbel! This man’s gone far off his rocker.”

After a brief pause, Rita inhaled deeply. Edna had by now outright leveraged an ice-cold glare towards her, but not even that was enough to stop Rita from continuing. Little could quell nor cool the genius mage Rita Mordio’s fire once it began blazing.

“Here, Edna: Take our battle formations for example. He always sends you straight to the back at the start of every battle, doesn’t he? Even I don’t get sent THAT far back, and I’m worse at close combat than you are. And once we get out of battle and back on the road, he’s always finding a way to keep you sandwiched between us. To protect you from monsters and whatever the hell else might happen, I guess.”

Rita’s anger only continued to escalate as she went on. Her voice steadily rising in volume and cracking here and there, she continued. “And that doesn’t even get into how he always ignores Asbel and I so he can take care of you. Doesn’t matter how much peril we’re in, doesn’t matter how much peril you’re NOT in,” Rita abruptly stopped talking to yank her single striped sock down over her leg, revealing a fresh and sizeable gash across her thigh. “And it CERTAINLY doesn’t matter if I nearly bled to death because one of those damn zombies snuck up on me while he was busy making sure a puny polwigle couldn’t make you break a nail or whatever. I swear, Asbel’s gels are the only reason I’m still alive and if it gets infected I blame—"

Edna jabbed the point of her umbrella into Rita’s side, making her yelp. The subject of Eizen’s doting had heard enough, it seemed.

“Now, assuming you’re physically capable of being quiet for at least a short while,” Edna said, “I suggest we play the quiet game. First person to speak up loses, and I know how much you hate to lose.”

Holding a hand to where Edna jabbed her hip, Rita’s face twisted into a deep grimace.

“Tell me I’m wrong, Edna. Look me in the eyes and tell me I’m wrong.”

As requested of Rita, Edna looked directly into her eyes. “You sure lost the game quickly. I guess you really aren’t capable of tact.”

“You—"

“That’s enough, Rita,” Asbel interjected.

Both girls jerked their heads towards the source of the interruption.

“Rita, I’m not saying that Eizen’s in the right here, but again: I get it,” Asbel started. “Imagine living your whole life, causing nothing but misery to those around you just by existing. There’s nothing you can do about it. He may be pretty cold in how he copes with the Reaper’s Curse, but can you blame him from wanting to protect the one he loves most from danger?” Asbel took a brief pause, then continued.

“When I was younger… someone close to me actually did die because of something I did. I didn’t mean to of course, but it’s because I dragged her into a dangerous situation that I couldn’t protect her from that it happened. It’s a horrible feeling, and I had to work for years to make up for it and make sure it never happened to anyone else. I get why Eizen would want to avoid something like that, especially since Edna’s protection against the curse is starting to fade—”

“No, Asbel, you still don’t get it. If that jerk really gave a damn about what the curse does to other people, he’d never have stayed with Aifread’s pirates in his own world. Even here on Tir Na Nog, he’d sure as hell pay a lot more attention to the rest of us nexuses if he cared, but does he? No! It’s always about Edna.” Rita sighed, and shook her head. She then glared at Asbel. “I get brotherly love or whatever, but Eizen isn’t just worried about his younger sister. He’s outright coddling her.”

Edna slowly stood up, put a hand on her hip, and glared down at Rita. “Didn’t I tell you to be quiet? Stay out of my business, just as I do with yours.”

“Oh, this is definitely our business! “ Rita shrieked. “I never said I was concerned about you. One of us is going to die because this idiot is so blinded by you that he never bothers to help us out, and I’m putting an end to it before we do.”

No one said a word. Good. Rita crossed her arms and closed her eyes, which had long begun to fill with angry tears. So much for not caring, she thought. “Like I said – you’re a brute, Edna, and way more of one than your brother gives you credit for. Own up to it for once in your life. If nothing else, maybe you can get him to stick around instead of isolating you for ‘your own good’ once that convenient ‘blessing’ of yours finally wears off.”

Rita took a long, deep breath. She needed to compose herself if she truly didn’t want to care so much. Once she was able to somewhat compose herself, she stood up and walked to the middle of the room.

Finally, heavy footsteps echoed through the ruins. Eizen returned from disarming the traps further inside. As soon as he came within her range of vision, Rita ran towards him.

“Talk about slow! Where the hell have you been?! What if some monsters had gotten to us and—”

“Pull your sock up, Rita,” Eizen interrupted. “Leaving open wounds exposed like that is asking for trouble.”

With an exasperated groan, Rita brought the top of her sock back to its usual place around her thigh. “Whatever, let’s just get going,” she spat out. “Do what we came for, hope we make it out alive at this rate, yadda yadda.”

“I’m hoping we’ll be fine. I disarmed more traps than a man should even think be necessary to arm the place with, but you never know with my—”

“Yeah sure, the Loser’s Curse or whatever. Seriously, let’s get this over with.” Rita and Eizen exchanged mutual, razor sharp glares, then expectantly turned their gazes towards Asbel and Edna.

Asbel left his place against the wall and began to walk towards Rita and Eizen. As he passed Edna, however, he came to a halt.

“You okay, Edna? You’re just standing there.”

“Just waiting on you slowpokes,” she sighed. “I’m ready when you are.”

“As am I,” Eizen added. “But before that, wait. I need to check something.” He left Rita’s side, walked over to Edna and Asbel, and looked his younger sister over for a long moment.

“What happened here?” He finally asked. “I don’t remember seeing that bruise on your arm earlier.”

Edna looked down at her arm to where Eizen’s finger pointed. She absentmindedly prodded it for a few seconds, then returned her gaze to him. “It’s nothing worth worrying about. I probably got it from when Rita fell on me after I had to get her out of a trap."

“Wait, you ran into another trap?! Are you sure you’re ok?”

Her brother’s concern only made Edna roll her eyes. “Eizen, I said I’m fine. Seriously, forget about it so we can just get this mission over with.”

Eizen crossed his arms and frowned. “Take better care of yourself, Edna. Hold on, I'll heal you.”

“Wait, hold on,” Asbel interjected.

Eizen shot Asbel an intense look, causing the boy to laugh nervously under the pressure of his gaze. “Eizen, it’s great that you care so much for your sister, and as an older brother myself I admire that. But Rita— OUCH!!”

Edna had opted to use the pointy end of her closed parasol to make Asbel stop talking. As Asbel groaned in pain and clutched his freshly stabbed cheek, Edna turned to her brother.

“Like I said, don’t worry about me Eizen. It’s just a bruise. And I know healing’s not your specialty, but go worry about Rita instead. Those gels of Asbel’s aren’t going to hold the zombie gash she got earlier together forever.”

Eizen’s expression tensed. “Edna—”

“Did I stutter? I said you don’t need to worry about me. It’ll do our cause little good if we come back with two of the nexuses dead just because you couldn’t stop doting on me for two seconds. Quit arguing and just go take care of Rita already.”

All eyes in the room turned towards Edna in surprise. After what seemed like an eternity, it was Eizen who broke the silence.

“…All right. If you say so.” He strode back over to Rita. “Rita, forget what I said about the sock and sit back down. I’ll see what I can’t do about that gash.”

With the shocked expression still left on her face, Rita complied. As Eizen got to work, Rita glanced back at Edna. Edna had the following to mouth towards Rita:

‘How’s that for brutish?’

**Author's Note:**

> Hi im Scarfy and I left the Eizen and Laphicet event story feeling far more dejected than I had ever imagined I would.
> 
> I mean, I've never been a fan of how official canon writing handles Edna's character in regards to respecting her agency and desires, so I feel like I should have seen a disappointing reunion coming. But somehow through all the "THEY'RE FINALLY GONNA INTERACT" hype I didn't, and now I'm borderline projecting myself onto Rita just to try and prove a point lol
> 
> The tl;dr of my issues is that the writing tries to justify Eizen's condescending and overprotective attitude towards Edna far too much. I'm perfectly fine with his treatment of her if it's presented as an -intentional character flaw- caused by anxiety about his curse and general "Eizen isn't exactly a model citizen" schebang. I'm well aware Eizen's no saint and that's what makes him interesting.
> 
> But the impression I got from this event was "lol it's ok that Eizen pushed her off to the side and ignored her own wishes for so long because he was trying to ~protect her~" or whatever.
> 
> We did NOT need Phoenix to show up and give Edna the BIGGEST copout "excuse" to keep Eizen around. Jesus christ can we not just say "Edna decided dealing with the Reaper's Curse was worth it to stay around her big bro"?? Is that too hard. Is. That. Too. Hard.
> 
> It's especially tragic because there ARE subtle and not so subtle acknowledgements abound in the event that Eizen's being super shitty to Edna, and that Edna is being way too complacent out of respect for him/fear of upsetting him/emotional constipation on her part/etc and that she needs to truly speak her mind (Velvet has some VERY choice quotes where she calls Eizen out btw bless her daemonic soul). But all that's shoved aside in the end and I hate it and and and
> 
> Whatever, I'm done. You can pick up on a lot of my grievances by reading the above fic anyway probably. I hope this is helpful to anyone who felt the same about the event that I did


End file.
